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Shown for illustrative purposes- Abortion-inducing pills are becoming more common worldwide.

The nine-month trial of a man and three women who used labour-inducing drugs to abort two foetuses which were buried in a garden finished yesterday with all three being jailed for murder.

One of the aborted babies remained alive for several hours after the miscarriage, prosecutors said, before it was buried in a garden alongside another.

NB, a 34-year-old Indonesian housemaid, told prosecutors that she had fallen in love with a man and had a child with him out of wedlock. When the baby was seven months old, she said, she became pregnant again and her lover told her about a Bangladeshi cleaner who could help her abort the child.

NB said the abortionist, MS, 32, gave her two injections and five tablets for Dh1,000.

Five hours after taking the medication, she miscarried. NB told prosecutors she buried the foetus behind the home of a compatriot, FS.

Several months later, HB, a 30-year-old Indonesian housemaid, discovered she was pregnant and was told by NB about the abortionist. HB went to MS for an abortion in her sixth month of pregnancy. A few hours after taking the medication, she gave birth to a boy.

Prosecutors say the child remained alive for 10 hours. The child was buried in the same place as NB's foetus, prosecutors say.

FS, whose garden the foetuses were buried in, said she dug up the corpses and returned them to HB as soon as she heard about the graves. She denied helping in their abortions but admitted to failing to report the incident to authorities.

Both NB and HB confessed to illicit sex charges, having an abortion and hiding the bodies of the aborted babies. They denied the murder charge.

A third Indonesian housemaid, BB, also confessed to aiding and abetting the crimes by helping to bury the foetuses.

After nine months, Judge El Saeed Bargouth of the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance handed down sentences yesterday.

The abortionist was convicted of performing two illegal abortions and practising medicine without a licence. He was given six years in jail and fined Dh10,000.

HB was convicted of having an illicit affair, illegally aborting a child and murder and was sentenced to five years in jail. NB was sentenced to three years while BB was given three years for aiding and abetting the crimes and concealing the bodies. FS was fined Dh1,000 for failing to report a crime but was acquitted of concealing the bodies.